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In the opinion of many critics and philosophers, we are entering an age of atheism marked by the waning of Christian fundamentalism and the flourishing of secular thought. Through alphabetically arranged entries written by expert contributors, this book profiles 27 iconic figures of unbelief whose ideas have shaped American society over the last 200 years. Included are entries on influential figures of the past, such as Albert Einstein and Voltaire, as well as on such contemporary figures as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Each entry discusses the ideas and lasting significance of each person or group, provides sidebars of interesting information and illuminating quotations, and cites works for further reading. The volume closes with a selected, general bibliography. Students in social studies and history classes will welcome this reference as a guide to the ideas central to the American separation of Church and State and to many of the political debates at the heart of society today.

Each entry discusses the ideas and lasting significance of the person or group, provides sidebars of interesting information and quotations, and closes with a list of works for further reading. The volume ends with a selected, general bibliography. Students in history and social studies classes will welcome this reference as a guide to the American separation of Church and State and to the ideas central to contemporary political debates.

Customer Reviews (2)

Icons of UnBelief brings religious beliefs into focus
My wife gave this wonderful book for Father's Day and I couldn't put it down.It's about 27 great thinkers, both men and women,from Voltaire and Jefferson to modern commentators, many still alive and writing, who strongly eschew religion and mostly any belief in God, certainly one which actively interferes in human lives. To these people God represents an abstract entity defying anthropomorphic description, even on Father's Day.

The huge value of this book to the casual reader is its liberal use of original quotes, buttressed by strong biographical and historical background material by the various expert authors chosen for each subject.

Not all the book's subjects are names you will immediately recognize.For example, bet you never heard of Charles Bradlaugh, a famous 19th Century British lecturer, researcher and writer who suffered sharp attacks for his atheism with statements such as "I do not deny "God" because the word conveys to me no idea, and I cannot deny that which presents to me no distinct affirmation and of which the would-be affirmer has no conception." In an 1881 address to a typically packed house, he proclaimed, "We would have all religions, like all sciences, on equal terms, the reward being in the future to the greatest discoverer of new truths, not as it has been in the past, to the most obdurate upholder of ancient delusions."

Modern commentators such as Oxford Don, Richard Dawkins,find it important to put a sharper point on the current scene.In an October 11, 2001 piece entitled "Has The World Changed?" in the Guardian (London), Dawkins wrote,"Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense.Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence, but, we thought , if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm?September 11th changed all that. Revealed truth is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense."

The trend to fundamentalism in our own country and around the world has brought out a surge of such commentators.However, Americans should realize that the American republic was founded by Deists, men such as Franklin, Washington, Paine, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, who were willing perhaps to say God created the world, but has no control over it.Thus, the concept of the Separation of Church and State ended up a vital tenet in our Constitution.

People of such open views also believed in the Rule of Law of the legislated sort and many in civil rights and many in such also hotly debated topics as the right to birth control and to divorce.

Life after death of course gets little brief from any of the 27, who uniformly and vigorously lived and are living lives of purpose and accomplishment with care only for moral principles which can be totally unconnected to any religion, hence the term Humanism, which when called by American writer and activist, Paul Kurtz, "secular humanism" was meant to be divorced from religious humanism or Marxist humanism, which were earlier appendages.

I won't attempt to spoil your savoring of these biographical gems, but knowing how leading personages of their day such as Albert Einstein, Freud, John Stuart Mill, Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell and Voltaire put aside the fantasies of religion makes one aware of what urgent changes our present day world needs to make about tolerance, lest religion becomes a possible trigger to planetary Apocalypse.A must read.

An eye-opening host of profiles in irreligion!
It may be a bit tacky for me to write even a capsule review of this volume, as I wrote one of the articles therein, the article on Richard Dawkins.But I promise not to mention my own contribution otherwise. This book provides a generous offering of profiles on outstanding atheists and irreligionists, from Voltaire and Nietzsche to Daniel Dennett and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, profiles written by a variety of authors with good track records, including such names as Max Deutcher, Edd Doerr, Tom Flynn, Robert Price, and editor and contributor S.T. Joshi.If anyone has any doubt that a strident disinclination with regard to religious belief is a widespread tradition spanning many illustrious and insightful people, this volume should lay that doubt to rest.Here's to our freedom from religion, and to the outstanding people who have worked to make it so.And kudos to S. T. Joshi for an excellent editing job. This volume belongs on the shelf of every freethinker, agnostic, atheist, infidel, and skeptic, if I do say so myself as an atheist who feels honored to have been a part of this project. ... Read more

Product Description

David Petraeus: A Biography offers an objective assessment of the life and career of the man who is arguably the most important military figure of the decade and certainly an officer who has had an enormous impact on U.S. military strategy and policy.

The biography examines the full range of Petraeus's experiences, from his youth in New York to his involvement with the 101st Airborne Division to the 2007 MoveOn.org controversy. The author, a military historian and army strategist, explores the general's considerable influence on officer development, as well as the ways in which his integration of diplomatic, economic, and informational components into military campaigns have transformed the Department of Defense's approach to warfare. Readers will be able to clearly trace Petraeus's rise to prominence and discover how his actions have shaped, and been shaped by, current events in the United States and the Middle East.

Product Description
This book provides a comprehensive look at local economic
development and public policy with special emphasis on quality
of life and sustainability. It draws extensively on case studies at
state and local levels, and includes both mainstream and
alternative perspectives in dealing with economic growth
and development issues.
The volume clarifies the contributions of economic theories and
empirical research to the policy debates, and the relationship of both to quality of life and sustainability.
It considers the impact of state and local tax systems on the level and structure of economic growth and
development; and the relationship between economic growth and development and state revenues,
expenditures, and regulatory policies. The book also explores the relationship between income inequality,
poverty, and economic opportunity; as well as strategies to incorporate quality of life indices and sustainable development issues in the policy debates. ... Read more

Product Description
Graduate-level text for science and technology students provides strong background in the more abstract and intellectually satisfying areas of dynamical theory. Topics include d’Alembert’s principle and the idea of virtual work, Hamilton’s equations, Hamilton-Jacobi theory, canonical transformations, more. Problems and references at chapter ends. 1977 edition.
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Customer Reviews (5)

One of the Better Books
I have always enjoyed Greenwood's book and it is much more original than most of the other engineering mechanics books out there.The only real deficiency here is a complete lack of any discussion of motion in a central force or vibrations.This is undoubtably due to the curriculum the book was designed for, but as a book these subjects should have been included for completeness.The absence of these subjects really mars an otherwise outstanding text.

No reason not to own it
This is the first book review on the books I listed here that are good for students. The first subject is classical dynamics, in which I listed two books. The book I am gonna review in this post is "Classical Dynamics" by Donald T. Greenwood, Dover Publication.

This is a concise book, whose main text contains 324 pages. Such a small size gives students confidence to read it cover to cover. regarding the mathematical prerequisite, although it claims to be a graduate textbook, it assumes only familiarity with basic calculus and some knowledge in differential equations.

The book is very well organized into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces basic concepts such as generalized coordinates, constraints, virtual work, and so on that are essential and enough for the following chapters. Chapter two derives Lagrange's equations, discusses integrals of motion, and applies the theory to small oscillations. Many interesting examples are worked out in this chapter.Chapter 3 then analyzes four special applications of Lagrange's equations, namely Rayleigh's Dissipation Functions, Impulsive Motion, Gyroscopic Systems, Velocity-Dependent Potentials.

Chapter 4 turns to the other pillar of the theory of classical dynamics: Hamilton's equations. It first elaborates the Hamilton's principle with logical clarity, then derives Hamilton's equations with examples. Finally, it discusses other variational principles and Liouville's theorem.

Chapters 5 and 6 should be considered as a whole. Chapter 5 tells one how to obtain principal functions and characteristic functions by using the Hamilton-Jacobi method. Chapter 6 explores the theory of canonical transformations and its application to dyanamics in more details and in a generalized way, in vewing that a principle function is a generating function for a canonical transformation between two points in phase space. These two chapters contain lots of details that are worth reading carefully.

The last one, Chapter 7 discusses special relativity by applying previously introduced methods. However, I found that such a chapter is actually not very necessary, at least for me. If one did not know much special relativity, he/she would not expect to learn much from this chapter. If one knew special relativity very well, then he/she should simply skip the chapter. But anyway, if you like, it is still fun to read it.

Now, pros and cons. Compared to other polular or standard books on this subject, this book is very well balanced between volume, conciseness, and the amount of details, it is easy to read. The book works every example in a detailed and heuristic way, which are good for the readers to develop their own problem-solving skills. The pictorial illustrations in the book are also very nice. At the end of each chapter,there are a bunch of excercise problems carefully chosen by the author. Final resutls of these problems are given at the end of the book so that readers can check their own answers after working through the solutions by themselves. I found that these problems are extremely usefull and interesting; hence, I solved each of them step by step.

Frankly speaking, I did not find any nonnegligible disadvantage of this book. Someone has a review, saying that "it fails to address issues like how one can use Lagrange's equations (or Hamilton's, for that matter) to correctly account for the effects of nonlinear dissipative forces". But I disagree, because I think topics like nonlinear system should be better treated in a more contemporary method, e.g. in the book: Classical Dynamics: a contemporary approach.

You may feel that the book is a bit too old, since it is first published in 1977. But come on, the subject is Classical dynamics, on which a book can never be too old to read. Another overwhelming reason to own it is that it is priced at only 10.37USD. Can anybody convince me to give up this one and buy the 100USD Goldstein's book instead? No way, of course not.

A slightly different version of this review can be found on my web blog.

Excellent Supporting Book
This book is an excellent read, and it explains concepts with unusual clarity. I wouldn't suggest it as a main text, but it is an excellent supplement to others, such as Goldstein or Jose and Saletan. I found this little book explained many concepts far better than these "standards" that are used in most graduate mechanics courses. It includes many nice examples. It also includes the answers to the problems in the back. How often do you see that in a graduate level book? I also think it is an excellent read for physics graduate students, who are just trying to get through the comprehensive exam rather than master the details of classical mechanics.

From my experience with the book
Chronologically, "Classical Dynamics" was Donald Greewood's second major publication on Analytical Dynamics, covering more advanced topics than the ones in "Principles ofDynamics," whose firstedition preceded "Classical Dynamics" by some 12years.

"Classical Dynamics" is a somewhat more readable text,but just like its companion book, it fails to address issues like how onecan use Lagrange's equations (or Hamilton's, for that matter) to correctlyaccount for the effects ofnonlinear dissipative forces. Also, itstreatment ofvelocity-dependent potentials could be substantiallyextended, as could the chapter on Relativity.

On the other hand, thechapters on variational principles, the Pprinciple ofLeast Action,Hamilton's mechanics, and, above all, canonical transformations are anabsolute "must-read"!

An updated, extended second edition wouldbe most welcome now.

sometimes difficult to read, but the problems are excellent
This book can be compared with Walter Rudin's Principles of MathematicalAnalysis in that it is very terse and the reader must sit with pencil andpaper to fill in many details, both in the theory and example problems. Itis the case that this process actively engages the reader into the subjectand permits a deeper, fuller understanding than just reading the resultsand final equations.Having less detail in the theory is understandable,but I've found that the example problems are equally as difficult tofollow;this makes it increasingly tough to solve his problems (thoughonce I solve a problem, I feel a great sense of accomplishment) Onproblems:the problems are very well thought out and complement thetheoretical section of the text quite well. ... Read more

Product Description

The Industrial Revolution that began in Great Britain in the mid-seventeenth century transformed the British economy—and later the economies of Western Europ and the U.S.—from a rural, agricultral system into an industrial society, centered around the factory system of mass production and specialized labor. the right mix of social, political and legal conditions in Britain at the time led to the discovery of labor. The right mix of social, political and legal conditions in Britain at the time led to the discovery of fresh sources of power and energy, and to advances in agriculture, manufacturing, communication and transportation. Notable results included the steam engine, which made possible everything from textile factories to railroads, and, later in the U.S., the cotton gin, electric light, and automobiles.

This comprehensive volume explores all these events and more, including the aftermath of the Revolution—its spread beyond Britain and the U.S. to Asia and throughout the world, allowing for a higher standard of living while challenging that standard with increased pollution and health problems, a widened economic and social class gap, and a weakening of traditional family structure. Biographical sketches of key figures, a chronology of events, primary document excerpts from the period, and a print and nonprint source bibliography supplement the work.

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Binding Unknown, Date not stated ... Read more

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"contributing scholars consider the impact that government regulations, policies and other forces--including innovation, tax reform, employee disincentives, academic partnerships, the costs of complying with government stipulations--have actually had on small business growth. Based on an examination of policy efforts in the late 1980s, the book attempts to reveal the changing emphasis in the nature of the debate regarding small business in today's economy." Entrepreneurial Economy Review ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2007. The length of the article is 935 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Peter W. Greenwood, Changing Lives: Delinquency Prevention as Crime Control Policy.(Book review)
Author: Matthew T. Theriot
Publication: Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 34Issue: 2Page: 219(4)

Article Type: Book review

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Customer Reviews (10)

Campaign in the West from the German Side
Karl-Heinz Frieser's Blitzkrieg Legend provides a detailed view of Germany's campaign in the west during May 1940. Unlike most accounts of this campaign available in the United States, Blitzkrieg Legend presents events from the German point of view. Frieser offers an intellectual and historical basis for understanding the blitzkrieg concept by examining the usage of the term in wartime propaganda, and comparing the material and doctrinal preparations for war undertaken by the adversaries. Frieser states "...blitzkrieg signifies an attempt to turn strategic necessity into operational virtue against the background of shortages in economic resources."

However, the heart of the book is the author's detailed presentation of the Wehrmacht's attack through the Ardennes, across the Meuse River and straight across the Allied rear areas to the English Channel (with over 40 color maps).

Highlights include:
- Logistics behind the German move through the Ardennes.
- Role of the Luftwaffe.
- Crossing the Meuse at Sedan under fire in rubber assault boats.
- Guderian's decision to turn west with the 1st Panzer Div.
- Blocking the French counter-attack at Stonne.
- Stealth crossing at Houx by the 5th Panzer Div.
- Rommel's 7th Panzer Div and the drive through Montherme, Montcornet and Avesnes.
- Tank battles at Hannut, Flavion and Arras.
- Rundstedt's halt order before Dunkirk.

As he endeavors to account for the tremendous disparity in outcomes between the German forces and their Allied adversaries, Frieser focuses on the mission-based tactics which allowed German commanders to respond to local conditions in a way their Allied counterparts could not match. Combined with extensive use of radio communications, ground-air coordination, more efficient re-fueling practices, and the schwerpunkt principle, mission tactics gave the Germans a doctrinal edge in handling the fast-changing conditions of maneuver warfare. As Frieser sums it up, "An operational war of movement above all is a problem of command technique."

A superb down-in-the-weeds look at the birth of modern warfare
Nazi Germany's spring offensive of 1940 opened a new chapter in warfare -- never before, in the long history of European conflict, had a victorious campaign of such magnitude (and brevity) been seen.Frieser is at pains to demonstrate that the most exhaustive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the opposing forces would not have yielded any basis for predicting such an overwhelming German victory.The book focuses on the tactical details of the "sickle cut" breakthrough in the Ardennes sector and the subsequent exploitation to the Channel coast.(The operations of Army Group B in Holland and northern Belgium barely rate a mention.)Readers will appreciate the abundance of operational and tactical-level maps (in German, of course), and Friesers combat narrative translates well.The German Army, despite deep misgivings within most of the high command, implemented and (for the most part) stuck to a superior strategic concept that was executed with great energy and outstanding tactical skill.Above all, Frieser's account pays tribute to the initiative displayed by German soldiers of all ranks.From Generals down to sergeants, this army demonstrated near-unbelievable energy, adaptability, and presence of mind throughout the campaign.It is a story well-told, with lessons that will resonate with every serious student of military history.

Get it!
This is the definitive account of the campaign in France and Benelux 1940. Thoroughly researched, myth-busting, superb analysis, easy to read in spite of its academic complexity.

The 1940 Campaign Explained
This is an excellent study of the 1940 blitzkrieg campaign in Western Europe and looks at the struggle of the German High Command to adopt the brilliant "sickle cut plan" when they themselves were expecting a long drawn out war and then looks how the campaign unfolded in depth. The book examines how the German victory came about even though the German forces were outnumbered and also contained in some instances inferior equipment e.g. the panzer divisions contained mainly inferior tanks of panzer pzkpfwIs & pzkpfwIIs.

The German advantages however lay in their ability to co-ordinate all arms in their arsenal e.g. airpower, armour, infantry and the German personnel on the battlefield were able to make quick decisions in the field and were always conscious of time and pushed onto their objectives. The author relates this ability to quickly react to the German training in that the German command gave out objectives and missions, but the way in how these were to be achieved was largely up to the individual officers in the front lines. It was also the unauthorised actions of commanders like Guderian and Rommel by relentlessly pushing forward with their panzers and outstripping the supporting infantry that caught both the German and Allied commands of guard. The French & Allied way was to wait for orders but once received they were generally hopelessly out of date, and time and again opportunities to launch effective counter attacks were wasted. The French Command was slow to react, unable to coordinate all arms and could not organise an effective counter attack at the operational level, they could only achieve this at a tactical level.

The author examines how the Germans came out victorious even though they contained large numbers of inferior tanks. The Germans achieved this by concentrating their armour in panzer divisions adhering to Guderians concept of "punching with the fist and not feeling with the fingers". The French tanks were superior in armour and firepower but lacked radio and had small fuel tanks. The French were constantly stopping to refuel from fuel trucks whereas the Germans tried to alleviate this by carrying fuel in jerry cans with them. The German tanks contained radio that enabled crews to better coordinate their attacks and gave them the edge. When the French did manage to mass their tanks it was in a linear fashion with no depth and the Germans were easily able to penetrate. Once the French lines were penetrated and the Germans raced on and reached the French rear areas, panic ensued and the French front virtually collapsed.

The author points out the French Command incorrectly assessed the Ardennes as impassable by armour, neglected the Sedan sector through lack of mines & incomplete bunkers and ignored reconnaissance reports of German movements and of course were far too slow to react. Also, the French airforce was not very effective because a long drawn out war was expected and therefore only a portion of available aircraft were committed.

This is indeed an interesting and well researched book and highly recommended.

Top-Notch History
This book is both an analysis of whether the campaign in France in 1940 was planned as a "blitzkrieg" and a rather good account of the campaign itself.

The author very convincingly demonstrates that the Germans in general (and Hitler in particular) did not plan the French campaign as a blitzkrieg-style attack.While the high command's conservative plans resembled a revamp of WWI plans, a few new-style officers--principally Manstein and Guderian--came up with and convinced Hitler to authorize the daring plan to attack through Sedan.The campaign would have been an even greater success if Hitler and the senior generals had not lost their nerve and continually reined-in the panzers.In any event, all the German generals were a bit stunned by the quick victory.The author concludes by saying that France was an "unplanned but successful blitzkrieg, while Russia was a planned but unsuccessful blitzkrieg."

The book is also an excellent account of the campaign, and points out many interesting facts, such as:
--the French supreme headquarters was not equipped with a single radio at the outbreak of the war;
--another senior headquarters had a single telephone line, which became inoperable every day betwee 12:00 and 14:00 while the battle was raging because the swithboard girl insisted on her lunch break;
--at the outbreak of the war, the Germans had twelve times more trained radio operators than the French army;
--while the superiority of many French tank models over the German panzers is rather well known, the author recounts an incident in which a panzer commander grew so frustrated that his panzer could not damage a nearby French tank that he dismounted and attacked it (unsuccessfully and with fatal results) with a hammer.

Meticulously sourced, well written, great book.My only quibble is the rather excessive use of the word "astonishing"... ... Read more